This book is a must-read. It is unconventional in style and the format lends itself to a profound searching. The author takes us on a internal journey, a personal one, of someone suffering from chronic fatigue. As a reader who doesn't have the virus, it is an eye-opener to be inside the body of someone who does. It brings empathy to people who suffer from they syndrome by very clearly describing the absolute debilitating affect it has. Also the novel is written from the perspective of a stranger in a strange land; King is an Englishman who has travelled the world, as an expert in international economics of third world countries, and in this book enters America, but this time as a writing professor. Through King's eyes, we see the values upheld throughout this land, the strange dualities. There is a kind of humor and honesty in this book that is so rare to find.

I love this book! It reminds me of the magical realism of Isabel Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez... The book is intoxicating in the way that it pulls you in, the further you get, the deeper you go, and it's a very rewarding finish. Completely unpredictable. It rivets the reader with exquisite details that make you feel as if you are really living inside this upper-class Indian family and experiencing the haunting... It's about the clash of the old India and the new; about women who seek independence but are still tightly guarded; about a place where the importance of food, sex and literature is woven into the culture. In this world you don't turn to Freud for the answers, but you inquire to the Hindu gods and to the tantric who lives in the underworld of Bombay. The journey of this novel utterly gripping, to the point where I could not put it down.